Says 80% of public servants living below poverty line
President of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), Patrick Yarde has called on the Minister of Finance to act on behalf of public servants and arrange a year-end payout, as an interim measure while the union continues to negotiate with government.
He said the minister can propose a supplementary estimate to facilitate the payout, noting that the short payment to public workers below the inflation rate over a number of years needs to be addressed. This deficit is 18% going back to 2002 and would have to be adjusted for inflation.
But government has not changed its position on the payout and on Friday last Public Service Minister, Dr Jennifer Westford said the administration is not in a position to offer a bonus to public servants although it understands how important that money is to families. She was at the time addressing members of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) at its General Council meeting, and had emphasised that public servants need to spend wisely at this time, adding that they can look to next year when government intends to address their concerns holistically.
In a letter to Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh dated December 15, 2008, Yarde urged the minister to intervene in the matter, stating that he is “the architect of the allocation of public funds”.
The GPSU president said that an estimated eighty percent of public servants are living below the poverty line, stating that the payment of increases in salary has been well below the rate of inflation and has resulted in a decline in the purchasing power of the public workers as can be noted from the table below.
According to him, parliament’s approval of levels of remuneration considered sufficient for the public worker to enjoy a reasonable existence and livelihood is a gross misrepresentation of reality, and that it has resulted in Guyana’s public workers being driven further into abject poverty.
Yarde said that his union completely rejects the government’s position on the payout, and in referring to a statement by Dr. Roger Luncheon about payments being negotiated with the unions and that the life of an agreement they had with GPSU had ended, the GPSU President said the union had no such agreement with government since 2000.
“The GPSU considers this state of affairs to be unsatisfactory, unconscionable, uncaring and unfair to public workers. In this regard, the GPSU demands that you address the short payment to public workers below the inflation rate, and rectify it as an interim measure..”, Yarde stated.
In May this year, President Bharrat Jagdeo announced a 5% salary hike for public servants, a temporary $4,000 non-taxable payment per month for those earning under $50,000 monthly and an initiative to keep bread prices from rising.
At the time, he noted “This increase follows a similar 5 per cent increase that has already been paid with effect from [January 1, 2008] to teachers and members of the disciplined services, and a 9 per cent increase that was paid to all of these categories of Government employees with effect from [January 1, 2007…]”
The President also announced that Government employees earning less than $50,000 would temporarily benefit from an additional tax-free top-up of $4,000 each month.
This was to last to the end of the year.
Yarde included a table in the letter, which looked at the inflation rate over the past few years and the difference between the proposed increases for public servants, as compiled by the Bureau of Statistics.
